Raz Amir
Avi Ricken (Itzik Blanitsky)
Maccabi Tel Aviv will try to get out of the crisis it has fallen into when tonight (Tuesday, 20:15) it will face Hapoel Jerusalem in a top game as part of the Premier League’s midweek round. Israeli football will go into recess this coming weekend, when in Bloomfield the Yellows will have a game against Hapoel Haifa on Saturday, but even before that they need three points against Ziv Aryeh’s trainees.
Maccabi Tel Aviv lineup: Daniel Peretz, Andre Geraldes, Nir Biton, Derrick Lucassen, Enrik Saborit, Ofir Davidzadeh, Dan Glazer, Gabi Kanikovski, Avi Ricken, Eran Zahavi and George Yovanovic.
Hapoel Jerusalem composition: Adbio Adlei, Aloz Yao, Noam Malmud, Unjay Bacho, Harel Shalom, Goni Noor, Nadav Nidam, Awka Ashta Tomer Altman, Don Cedric and Jordan Botaka.
Vladan Ivić’s team will be supported by about 5,000 fans who bought tickets for the game despite the two bad performances against Hapoel Beer Sheva and Nes Ziona Section. A player in the team said about this: “There is a huge audience behind us that we cannot disappoint again. There is a team here that at the beginning of the season showed a very good ability with the expectation of the continuation, we are all working together to return to exactly this ability.”
Ivić had two training sessions before the match, in which he tried a number of practices before the match in an attempt to find, as he said, the best 11 that would be able to provoke a reaction and return the team to the winning track. It is clear to everyone that another loss of points will already bring Maccabi Tel Aviv into a very deep crisis, the results of which could be very significant. Already today, the gap with Maccabi Haifa stands at four points and once again the Yellows are in a position to chase after the top.
The players left the final practice with no idea who would start and in which formation the coach would decide to play following his many different practices. Parfa Goyagon, who was left out of the squad against Nes Ziona due to a poor attitude he showed, will return this time to Ivic’s 20 and the one who will go out again is Dan Beaton who came on as a substitute on Saturday and was unable to step up and show good ability. Both players, however, intend to ask to leave in January on loan due to their status in the Yellows’ squad.
